Obituaries
John Ward CBE, RP, NEAC, Hon. PS
( 1917 – 2007, aged 89)
“He was a LOVELY man”: is invariably the initial response of anyone you ask who knew him. And he was, civilised, genteel, kind and enormously generous with his encouragement of those of us following in his wake. He must have spent time every morning writing in his spidery hand to former students and acolytes : words of wisdom, stressing the sheer joy of painting and how lucky we are ; words of praise for something of theirs seen on his travels, “You are painting so well, I am glad. It encourages me to try harder!” and similarly selfdeprecating small confidences about the difficulty of achieving financial success, just in case others were downcast about their own exhibitions. In the febrile world of dog eat artistic dog this appeared almost saintly.
Quietly – spoken John may have been, but as his core was a steely determination. On more than one occasion I have witnessed him dominate a prize-giving panel. That they came round to his way of thinking and did so quite genuinely, proved the validity of his judgment.
He stood for beauty. When, during the row about the notorious Sensation exhibition, John was gratuitously insulted by the Secretary of the Royal Academy who declared that there was no point to art that did not change the world, he resigned and refused to go back. We at the RP have been enormously privileged to have both him and his lovely portraits amongst us. P.S. Visit Challock Church in Kent, full of his murals from 1956 and from 1999. A perfect place …. you will see.
Daphne Todd OBE, PPRP, NEAC, Hon. SWA
Link to John Ward’s obituary in the Independent
Link to John Ward’s obituary in the Telegraph
